Great Expectations

The GenCareerShift team recently published an article in the Journal of Business and Psychology that details our findings from a recent study (partering with D~code). The results show that recent university graduates had reasonable expectations for their starting salaries (about $43,000), but they expected a 62% pay increase within the first 5 years on the job (up to $70,000). Also, almost 70% of respondents expected to be promoted within the first 18 months of starting their first career job.

Since our data were collected in 2007, the natural question is whether a hard economy has attenuated the expectations of young workers. Evidence from another study, conducted by Sara De Hauw and Ans De Vos in Belgium shows that graduating students' expectations about pay, training, career development and work-life balance did not change between 2006 and 2009, but they did lower their optimism and their expectations for a social work environment and job security.